The 158-pound Marriage - John Irving

Until I Find You - John Irving

As a committed John Irving fan, it’s hard for me to write something that could be considered critical of the man, especially in regard to his most personal and autobiographical release to date. Easy to be flippant about The Fourth Hand (which reads a little too much like a draft of an interesting idea), it’s harder to be truly fair to Until I Find You, especially since I think it makes an enormous difference if you have read much Irving before. Until I Find You is the story of actor Jack Burns, whose unnervingly steely tattoo-artist mother Alice takes him on a northern European odyssey on the heels of his absent father, tattoo-obsessed organist William. Jack, a beautiful ...

John Irving in general

I first came across the name John Irving when I was reading Brian May's autobiography. For the benefit of those who've been listening to Debussy for the last three decades, Brian May is/was the lead guitarist in the band Queen. On their 1984 album "The Works", Queen included a song called "Keep Passing The Open Windows" - a very powerful song about suicide. [Which I probably shouldn't mention in case this opinion gets black-balled by the nanny-gods up on Mount OpCom. Words are dangerous y'see, and some people are so afeared of 'em that some things can't be discussed here on dooyoo. If you're one of those people kindly ...

John Irving in general

The first John Irving novel that I ever read was ‘A Prayer for Owen Meany’ and since then I have been a great fan of his work. He writes complex and intriguing plots packed with original and engaging characters. Owen Meany is one of these characters and is a typical product of Irving’s imagination. The book begins with Owen playing a baseball game in which he hits a foul ball and kills his best friend’s mother. This could be perceived as an accident, but Owen doesn’t believe in accidents, he thinks everything has a purpose. The story that follows will have you laughing out loud, thinking deeply and may well bring you close to tears. Other ...